Secrets
by redhead evans
Summary: Upon Minerva's entrance to the Order, Moody is suspicious. When he goes to his best friend with his accusations, Dumbledore sets him straight. ADMM oneshot


"Really, Albus, I'm not trying to insult your judgment but I really don't trust it this time."

"Alastor, I can't understand why you don't trust her. What on earth could make you believe that she isn't loyal?"

"Honestly, I'm not the only one. Think about it Albus, her suggestions are too good. I'm not jealous or anything but she can come up with what the Deatheaters are going to do next and counter it. When questioned she just says that she puts herself in their shoes but there's no way someone could put themselves that far into the role while remaining loyal to the light."

"Ahhh, I see. Alastor, let me explain my reasons for my implicit trust in her. As you know, before I began my research with Nicolas Flamel and before I began to teach here, I was an Auror. Not very long after I began to teach a man calling himself Grindelwald rose to power. The Ministry requested that, even though I was no longer their employee, if they needed help that I would oblige and join their forces temporarily. I of course agreed and joined on as a consultant, so I could remain teaching. They mainly wanted my help to train a top secret spy to go out actively in the field ASAP, occlumency and some basic skills needed in the field. She was then transferred to another spy we had within his ranks and given to Grindelwald as a… gift. She was young, fresh out of Hogwarts and recently accepted into the Auror academy, and Grindelwald took an immediate liking to her; she wasn't just a beautiful face but a brain as well and she helped him form his plans to the most destruction. He quickly discarded his other… gifts in favor of her and soon all of his followers knew to take her orders of face the consequences. That status was soon moved to his Dark Mistress and she had the freedom to kill anyone she wanted to with impunity. Not wanting to cast an Unforgivable she used other means like cutting curses, basting hexes, bone-breaking hexes, etc. and quickly gained a reputation that didn't allow for them to make her unhappy due to her rather painful, bloody, and fatal deaths. Those she killed were decapitated: their heads on pikes outside the fortress and their bodies left on the grounds for scavengers.

Her elevated status gave her the opportunity to report to us freely; Grindelwald both trusted and loved her to a fault. She reported directly to me and we developed a strong friendship from the frequent meetings. When I gave her the time and date of the final attack she volunteered, despite my efforts to convince her to flee, to hold Grindelwald unaware and unable to fight back until someone came for him.

FLASHBACK

"_There will be an attack next week, Wednesday to be precise, at 5:00 in the afternoon. We hope that it will be the last battle, ending in the defeat and death of Grindelwald. We have also realized your immense value and help in the war and do not want you injured in any way, shape, or form." He looked down, blushing slightly, and began to examine the gray cobblestones of the corridor they were in._

"_We as in the Ministry or we as in you?" Pure curiosity was in her voice as well as some wry amusement. Even without looking he could tell at least one eyebrow was raised._

"_Honestly… both we's. I beg you to flee;" He both saw and felt her stiffen, accompanied by a sharp intake of breath, but carried on heedless of the warning signs. "It doesn't have to be long before the attack but just enough to be safely out of the castle. Please…"_

_A long pause followed his plea, making him begin to rethink his decision to go on, and when she finally spoke it was in a cold and distant tone that screamed of forced politeness and great restraint._

"_Albus you should know better than to ask me that. While I'm flattered for your concern you know that I have been in the forefront of this war for two years and I will not back down just because I'm certain that I will be in the middle of a battle. I will have him otherwise occupied when you attack and keep him unaware that there is something going on around him until someone comes to kill him. Now if that is all of the news from your end I will take my leave of you. I look forward to seeing you Wednesday regardless." She spun on her heel and walked away from him, her stiff posture telling him of her mostly repressed anger, dismantling the silencing charm he had placed and then the proximity charm a little further down the hallway. He sighed, watching her turn around the corner and disappearing from sight before turning to leave and give his report._

END FLASHBACK

"The day of the attack came and, although a team of Aurors had been assigned to storm the castle specifically to deal only with Grindelwald as the priority of the mission, I was determined to get to her first. A team of Aurors would enter any room flinging fatal curses around like madmen, heedless of where the spies were residing. Since I was sure where she would be I knew it would be disastrous if they got there first. When the first charge was called I ran ahead, flinging stunners at any opposition in order to clear a path and heedless of the ones I hadn't managed to stun. I entered through a side door that I knew would be unguarded, at her orders, and charged up the stairs two at a time before turning left and taking what I knew to be the shortest path to their suite. I killed the two guards at the door before they could raise any alarm and blasted the door open.

FLASHBACK

_A black-haired witch sat reading on a couch in a lavishly decorated sitting room, glancing up at the clock every so often. As the clock hit 4:30 she carefully marked her place and put the book down before standing and sweeping out of the room, form fitting emerald robes billowing behind her. She went down the hall, barely noticing as people quickly got out of her way and inclined their heads in respect as she passed, and entered a large conference room. Quietly crossing to stand behind the room's only occupant she put her hands onto the muscular shoulders and squeezed lightly._

_"Aww… Why so tense, honey? All of this planning is really stressing you out. You need some time to relax and have some fun and lucky for you I know just where you can do that."_

_He turned and captured her lips with his, growling slightly when she pulled away quickly._

_"Sorry, now and here isn't the time and place. Take some time to finish up in here, at least five minutes, and then you can start walking. I'll meet you in our bedroom when you've finished."_

_She gave him a quick kiss on the lips before turning and leaving the room, mind furiously whirling. She had already done the math countless times but the plan's success depended on nearly flawless timing. The attack was to take place at 5:00 and she needed 15 minutes to get him distracted enough to ignore any faint sounds that might leak through her charm. She had taken roughly three minutes to walk there, two more to talk, and would take another three to walk back to their rooms. That took three minutes out of his five that he had to wait, leaving him only two more before he could begin to walk. It would take him longer than three minutes to get to her since he walked slow and would most likely dilly-dally in the halls to converse with the followers whose names he could call to mind, most likely about their recent victory in London. That totaled only fell short by a few minutes which she was sure wouldn't hinder the plan if it didn't help. _

_She went straight to the bathroom, discarding her robes and pulling on fairly indecent lingerie before removing the pins that held her loose bun in, letting her hair fall down to her waist. She expertly twisted it back up, tighter and more secure this time, before moving back into the bedroom to wait. He entered not soon after and as he loosened the collar of his robes with a grin she silently erected an inverted silencing charm (keeping sound out instead of in) and a proximity charm. He only grinned wider, knowing she felt uncomfortable having people be able to hear what they were doing and continued to disrobe before jumping on top of her. About fifteen minutes later she felt the proximity charm go off and bean to move her hand from their position (wrapped around his neck and waist respectively) to one beneath him (tracing circles on his chest and stomach) making sure he was in between her and the door. She watched as the door blasted open, no sound since the silencing charm stopped short of the door, and watched an orange beam of light, a cutting hex, come towards them and make contact on his back. He whipped around with a snarl getting off of me and lunging for his wand. She grabbed mine from under the pillow and dove under the bed, heedless of her lack of clothing silently cursing whoever was at the door's stupidity. Summoning an opponent's wand was expected in a duel but when the person doesn't know that there's an attacker they aren't expecting to have their wand summoned, especially when they are **otherwise engaged** like he was. _

_The attacker moved further into the room, revealing his face, ducking smoothly as a barrage of curses was sent his way. They stopped and began to circle, Albus one way and Grindelwald countering to put himself in front of me. Honestly, one would think him a noble Gryffindor with that behavior. He stood tall and proud, all the arrogance of a Slytherin on his face, before starting to fight again. One of Albus' cutting curses slashed into his wrist, cutting the veins and allowing his blood to flood out in torrents. He continued shooting curses even when he couldn't stand but quickly stopped when he couldn't keep his arm raised, letting the wand slip out of his hand before whispering "Minerva, I love you." and slumping the remaining couple of inches to the floor, dead._

_She looked at Albus coolly before standing up unperturbed and walking into the bathroom (behind him) to get a robe._

_"We will be taking the followers into custody, life sentences, and would like to ask you to help get them to cooperate by pretending that you have been captured and implying that if they wait patiently you will break them out. Those who don't wait will be punished most severely upon your break-out." She walked out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a short robe, very loosely belted, and nodded, obviously still angry at him from last week's meeting. "I need you to surrender your wand into my custody and walk in front of me with your hands clearly visible at all times, just for pretense. We are going to take the shortest path to the battlements, subduing any non-Ministry personnel we might encounter along the way." He paused to let her speak but quickly ran to catch up to her, since she had already begun to walk out of the room before he was ready. They walked through the silent corridors, everyone appeared to be out on the grounds fighting, and climbed the short flight of steps to the battlements without a word to each other, his hand hovering just short of touching her back. At last they stepped on to the battlements, surveying the battle unnoticed until he fired loud fireworks from his wand, gaining the entire fields attention. He pushed her forward gently, moving sideways to avoid getting a face full of her very long, tangled, and windblown black hair, and placed his wand at her throat, casting a charm to make her able to be heard._

_"I hereby call forth my remaining right, as Grindelwald's chosen successor, to command the troops. I order that all of the late Dark Lord's men, or women, cease their fighting and surrender their wands to their assailant. You are then to follow their directions to the letter; any failure to comply will result in a punishment from **me**,not them. Thank you for following my directions so explicitly, McLaggen." The sharpness in her voice startled him into attention and he noticed a small group in the corner that hadn't stopped fighting break apart suddenly and one of the figures shake a fist in the air and shout something inaudible, no doubt something angry. "Don't make me revise my opinion of your intelligence, I'm not blind you know. We will all be escorted to Azkaban Island Maximum Security Wizarding Prison; the Ministry has obligingly agreed to provide our transportation. I am still honor bound to the oath my predecessor took: none of you will be abandoned. We do look after our own, even now when another rise seems far away. I ask you to be patient and wait for me before I tell you that this distant future isn't as far as it seems to…" She was cut off by Albus' hand covering her mouth accompanied by his apologetic voice in her ear, "More realistic this way."_

_She nodded curtly before turning to go back to her rooms to await any further need they might have of her._

_ END FLASHBACK _

"She was taken out again later and put on a bus with the other followers. She spread the rumor that she knew how to get out and escape and that they were all to wait for her to get them out or face her punishment. She was taken off the bus under the pretense that she was going to a maximum security cell and let free. As she put it, she had no job, no home, she had never been an Auror and she didn't work well with others now anyways so I offered her a job at Hogwarts. I took DADA and she took Transfiguration. Armando died the next year and I took the post, having been Deputy Head, and made her my Deputy.

"A few years later she started to get back in contact with some financial aides of Grindelwald hoping for some news of anything. Eight or so years later rumors began to surface about a new Dark Lord. Minerva informed the Minister as she was leaving the castle to see if she could put herself in his ranks as a spy.

FLASHBACK

_"My master will see you now." _

_She turned to face him, watching as he gulped nervously, and smiled. Thanking him, she stood from the chair she had been seated in and adjusted her hair and robes before walking over to the large double doors, the only way in to his chamber, which were quickly opened for her._

_Voldemort obviously liked displays of power, that much could be gathered from the room's layout, and so without a pause she began to walk down the long path to the raised dais at the other end of the room. Mentally checking her appearance, not that there was any way she could fix it if it was needed, especially her facial expression, she let her thoughts wander aimlessly. Her hair was flowing loose down her back for the first time in a long time and her robes were form-fitting and low cut, something she wouldn't allow herself to wear under normal circumstances. But she was on a mission and it required that she dress like this, however reluctantly. She came to a stop at a respectful distance away from him, dropping a curtsy and waiting for him to speak._

"_You want to join my ranks, as I understand it, as an advisor. Supposedly Grindelwald's mistress, you make an excellent find, but unfortunately I cannot accept your offer of help. You are nothing I can't find in any other woman, Minerva McGonagall, and your experience can be found in any other man that wasn't captured when you were. You aren't the thing I need to add to my ranks, mostly because your method of punishment is too final and wasteful for my tastes. I admire your quick on the trigger mentality but cannot condone your blatant disregard for the lives of your followers, no matter how much they displease. So, thank you but no. Perhaps one day I may be in need of you but that day is not it."_

_Clearly dismissed, she dropped another curtsy and walked out the doors again knowing that he would assign a group of men to follow her, or kill her, and would most likely assign men to make sure the first group did their jobs. She strode quickly into the forest surrounding his hideout and chose a clearing to fight in. Soon after she heard the sounds of people behind her and stunned them the moment they set foot in the clearing. She killed five of them, leaving one for questioning. After finding out their orders, track her down and kill her, she killed him too and sat down to wait. When the other group came into the clearing she stunned them and started to work on their memories. She un-stunned them and walked away quietly, not wanting to be around when they decided to report to Voldemort, and after pinning her hair into its usual bun she apparated back to the Ministry._

_ END FLASHBACK _

_"_Her work in the field is why I want her in the Order. The fact that she was Grindelwald's right hand allows her to predict how they will act because she was one of them. But I still trust her implicitly most especially because she is my wife."

"Your wife?"

"Yes, my wife. When she walked away from my request that she leave I realized how much it would hurt to lose her. We started dating shortly after I offered her the job at Hogwarts and I madder her Deputy three months after we were married. So, while I thank you for trusting me so much and for bringing your suspicions to me Alastor, you really have nothing to worry about. Do you have any more concerns Alastor? Very well then, good night."

He watched the now embarrassed man walk out the door and was still staring at the doors when an unnoticed tabby cat that was in front of the fire broke into an uncontrollable sneezing fit. He steepled his fingers in front of his face and turned his attention to her, watching as, with a pop, she turned into a very red faced Minerva McGonagall who could hardly stand up she was laughing so hard.

"My dear Tabby, what on Earth do you find so funny?"

"Oh, Albus… his face… priceless." She dissolved into giggles once more and he just stared amusedly over his spectacles at her, thinking that the poor man's face had indeed been priceless.


End file.
